Justin Tracy may have fallen into the real estate niche, but it was when he let go of assumptions and the "bells & whistles" that he was able to build the software that changed the face of the industry and allowed him the freedom to become a successful serial entrepreneur.

As a real estate tech pioneer, Justin Tracy has always possessed the unique knack for seeing the “bigger picture” of how tech can solve some of the industry's most difficult challenges - all while making it look easy.

“Back in college, in my dorm room a friend was building IDX software and I had no idea what that meant. It sounded cool and once he showed me how much money real estate agents can make, I was like sounds even cooler. I spent the summer bolting together one of the first data feeds available to the public, built a website around it and it snowballed into something pretty big.”

It was this openness and forethought that quickly made Justin an industry leader and enabled him to build software companies that became the blueprint for many of real estate’s most widely used platforms such as Realty Generator [acquired by Market Leader, while he was still in college] and Kunversion, known today as the popular CRM kvCore.

Not only a serial entrepreneur, Justin became the CTO for JPAR, a top 20 independent firm, where he was tasked with choosing tech partners that aligned with his core goals:

“How do we generate more leads? How do we convert more leads? And How do we enable agents to do that in the least amount of time possible?”

It was this quest that led Justin to HomeStack to create JPAR's mobile real estate app. It also allowed our CEO Will Grewal to sit down with Justin and dig in on: why he thinks agents should use new tech, what they can do now to prepare for the future and why if RE/MAX had bought him in 2003 it would have disrupted the entire industry.

Go Where Your Customers Are - On Mobile
“I think if agents can get over the vanity side of real estate they could save a lot of time and money. It is simple, go where your customers are...your customers are on mobile! They are all on their phones, you need to be where they are - it couldn’t be any more obvious to me.”

Look for Holes in your Brokerage Tech Stack to Stay Ahead
“We choose you guys [HomeStack] because at JPAR we didn’t have a real estate mobile app and the public is on mobile. They are on native experiences from the App Store all the time, so this was a serious hole in our tech stack. There were 3 or 4 possible options out there and you guys [HomeStack] were clearly the best option.”

Use this Time of Scarcity to “Double Down” on Your Tech
“Prepare your businesses for a time of scarcity using technology to build yourselves lead funnels that are sustainable especially in times of scarcity and demand...now is the time to double down on your infrastructure and build yourself a scalable technology based lead generation system that can pull you through times of need not just times of abundance.”

Leverage Push Notifications or You'll Leave a Ton of Money on the Table
“The Push Notification aspect of mobile for clients with new property alerts especially in a hot market like right now, combined with the Push Notifications for the agents viewing the activity of the lead. Those in my mind are what mobile brings the most value to0. No one looks at email anymore because of all the spam, no one answers their phone, so what are you left with? Push notifications, that’s about it!”

“If you're not leveraging Push Notifications as a mechanism for alerting your agents, monetizing your sphere and lead generation then you're leaving a crap ton of money on the table!”

The Future of Real Estate: Integrating Your Systems
“The synergy between the agent's CRM and their mobile experience is going to be the key. The companies that are going to be able to bridge that gap, are going to see a lot of dividends. I'm interested to see how that comes together for the future of HomeStack.”

Watch the full interview with Justin and our CEO Will Grewal below:

The future for Justin is his new automated direct mail company thanks.io: real mail that converts. Check it out and follow them to learn how adding automated [real] mail can expand your reach.

Ready to learn more about building a white label app for your team or brokerage? You can find more info HERE.

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